Expressions of Faith

an outlet of encouragement, explanation, and exhortation

Category: Christian Living (Page 1 of 8)

literary design

Video Message Series – Sermon on the Mount

August 12, 2026 /

These 24 messages on the Sermon on the Mount were prepared for Long Beach Friends Church in 2024. They follow the Bible Project‘s Sermon on the Mount material for additional study. The links below will open a video of the message from Long Beach Friends Church on YouTube.

2024-01-07 – Introducing the Sermon on the Mount
2024-02-11 – Startling Freshness
2024-02-18 – Peacemaking and its Consequences
2024-02-25 – Visible Salt and Light
2024-03-03 – Jesus and Torah
2024-03-10 – Murdering the Image of God
2024-03-17 – Good News! Jesus is Lord.
2024-03-24 – The Problem with Lust
2024-04-07 – Jesus Comments on Divorce
2024-04-28 – When Our Words Use God for Our Purposes
2024-06-02 – What “Hypocrite” Means to Jesus
2024-06-09 – The Lord’s Prayer
2024-06-23 – The Lord’s Prayer – Part One
2024-06-30 – Lord’s Prayer – Daily Bread
2024-07-07 – The Lord’s Prayer – Forgive
2024-07-14 – The Lord’s Prayer – Temptation
2024-08-25 – Fasting, Treasure, and Eyes to See
2024-09-01 – Mammon!
2024-09-08 – Real Treasure
2024-09-29 – Worry
2024-10-06 – Ask Seek Knock
2024-11-03 – Two Gates
2024-11-10 – Watch Out for False Prophets
2024-11-17 – Grounded on the Rock

The photo depicting the literary design of the Sermon on the Mount was downloaded from Bible Project. It was downloaded from the BibleProject Guide entitled Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. We highly recommend the BibleProject material for study; it is absolutely wonderful – and freely available!

steaming kettle

Video Message Series – Contemporary Issues

August 5, 2026 /

These 19 messages on navigating contemporary cultural issues and disagreements were prepared for Long Beach Friends Church in 2023 and 2024. The links will open a video of the message on YouTube.

2023-01-22 – Christian Disagreement
2023-01-29 – Practical Disagreement
2023-02-05 – Abortion
2023-02-12 – Abuse
2023-02-19 – Creation and Human Care
2023-02-26 – Racism
2023-03-05 – Church Teaching about Women
2023-03-12 – Women, Men, and the Fall
2023-04-16 – Holidays and Such
2023-05-07 – Sexuality and Listening
2023-05-21 – The Bible and Sex
2023-05-28 – Approaches of Various Churches to LGBTQ Issues
2023-06-04 – Sex and Gender
2023-06-11 – Humility and Cancel Culture
2023-07-02 – Christian Nationalism
2023-07-09 – God Needs You?
2023-07-16 – Patriotism, Nationalism, and Christians
2024-05-05 – Free Speech, Civil Disobedience, and Following Jesus
2024-08-04 – Offense, Condemnation, and the Olympics

The photo of the steaming kettle is adapted from a photo taken by my son Samuel.

Underground Railroad Routes through Indiana and Michigan
Underground Railroad Routes through Indiana and Michigan

Video Message Series – Christians, Politics, and Government

July 30, 2026 /

These nine messages on how Christians relate to politics and government were prepared for Long Beach Friends Church in early 2025. The links will open a video of the message on YouTube.

2025-05-04 – The Foundation

2025-05-18 – Fear

2025-05-25 – Hate, Disrespect, and Slander

2025-06-01 – To Speak or Remain Silent

2025-06-22 – Immigration

2025-08-03 – Other Gods

2025-08-10 – To Love My Neighbor

2025-08-24 – Are Christians Political?

2025-09-21 – Today’s Deception

The photo of a map of the Indiana and Michigan routes for the Underground Railroad is in the Public Domain. It was downloaded from the New York Public Library website.

The Bible tells us to love and care for the immigrants among us!

February 28, 2026 /

Rabbi Shai Held wrote an essay recently that appeared in the New York Times. It is entitled One of the Bible’s Greatest Moral Revolutions. I would think that Jesus’ admonitions to love our neighbors and enemies and to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves would be enough for Christians… But (speaking as a citizen of the United States) apparently not, judging by the cruel and arbitrary treatment of immigrants by many carrying the authority of our government these days.

Rabbi Held addresses biblical teaching from Hebrew scripture, focusing mostly on the Pentateuch, as one might expect. He concludes:

…many of our leaders lack the most fundamental understanding of the central biblical commandment to love and care for the immigrant.

Rabbi Held discusses what he calls the revolutionary teaching of the Torah regarding love for immigrants. The first love is love of God. The second is love of neighbor. Those two ideas were widespread in biblical times. The third love we are called to observe in Torah, though, was revolutionary in Torah times – love the immigrant residing in your community! See, for example, Exodus 22.21. His essay is highly recommended. If we claim to follow Yahweh and do not love immigrants in our community, we’re not listening to the teaching that expresses God’s concern for those who are in disadvantaged situations with little power.

If we claim to follow Jesus and do not love our immigrant neighbors…. Well, we’re not really following him, are we? There’s really no excuse for one who claims to follow Jesus to be cruel and unjust.

Listen to an Excellent Episode of the Esau McCaulley Podcast – Patriotism, Big Churches, and “Human”!

July 4, 2025 /

The last episode of the Esau McCaulley podcast (as of July 4, 2025) is really excellent. I highly recommend it.

There’s a wonderful discussion of patriotism with a really helpful metaphor – the best I’ve heard yet! You’ll recognize it when you hear it. That conversation is followed by a discussion of big church vs. small church – the advantages and disadvantages of each. (Spoiler: To be fair, it is a discussion weighted towards small church.) Lastly, there is a closing segment discussing Peter Thiel’s philosophy and what it means to be human – a certain kind of techno-false gospel.

Listen in your favorite podcast app or watch it on YouTube or listen here in your favorite web browser.

Using Language Without Regard for Truth… Or Not

February 20, 2025 /

 In the 1992 American edition of his book Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power (first published in German in 1974), Josef Pieper commented that advertising in modern societies damages language. Words are “perverted and debased to become a catalyst, a drug, as it were, and . . . as such administered. Instrument of power may still seem a somewhat strong term for this; still, it does not seem so farfetched any longer.”

Of course, in these days, this thought strikes me as deeply relevant. What is evidently false is claimed to be true – outright lies! Spoken by those in positions of great responsibility and power. And what is true is denied and suppressed. All in the name of influencing and controlling other humans for some presumed “good” end. Not all words are like this – yet? – but so many seem to believe what is simply false and damaging. And so it continues. Straight talk is hard to find.

Pieper, in this book, insists those who care for truth must stand solidly against such twisted and twisting use of words. Quoting Pieper…

This implies also opposition to anything that could destroy or distort the nature of the word as communication and its unbiased openness to reality. In this respect we are well able to pronounce the general principle and at the same time to be very specific: opposition is required, for instance, against every partisan simplification, every ideological agitation, every blind emotionality; against seduction through well-turned yet empty slogans, against autocratic terminology with no room for dialogue, against personal insult as an element of style (all the more despicable the more sophisticated it is), against the language of evasive appeasement and false assurance… and not least against the jargon of the revolution, against categorical conformism, and categorical nonconformism…

Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power by Josef Pieper

How to oppose such words spoken for purpose without regard for truth? I mean, how to oppose such with integrity for Jesus’ teaching and love for even those who behave as enemies? It often seems difficult. Muddy. And yet, scripture has true words that speak profound wisdom to those who will listen….

All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Matthew 5.37, New International Version of the Bible

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.

Ephesians 4.25, New International Version of the Bible

When words are many, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.

Proverbs 10.19, New International Version of the Bible

These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the LORD.

Zechariah 8.16-17, New International Version of the Bible

May I be found faithful with my words.

“The Infinitely Compelling Christ”

August 28, 2024 /

A friend sent me a link to this short video comment by David Bentley Hart. (Thanks, AJ!) I appreciated it a lot. You can see it here or watch below inline.

I’d simply add that the experience of the risen Christ is not only an infinitely compelling historical event. It isn’t only for the likes of Paul, but for Jesus’ followers today. I don’t mean to imply that Hart thinks or said otherwise. However, just to clarify, the experience of the risen Christ is central to following Jesus today. It is what makes faith impossible to abandon for me and many others.

May you also experience Him – “the presence of God in time” – in spite of the all too prevalent personal and institutional shortcomings of those who claim to be his – including my own.

Rich Villodas’ Big Picture Gospel

July 10, 2024 /

My kind of big picture definition of of the Gospel is I believe that the gospel is the good news that the kingdom of God has come near in Jesus Christ, and that in his life, death, resurrection, and enthronement the powers of sin and death no longer have the last word, and the primary fruit of the Gospel is a new Humanity. This is Ephesians 2: the dividing wall of hostility coming down, a new Humanity, a new community, a new family.

Rich Villodas, speaking at the Long Beach Church Collective, July 8, 2024

Prayer, Persuasion, Service, and Suffering

July 9, 2024 /

I was listening to an interview of John Dickson today on the Holy Post. The way he characterized the means by which Christians are called to change the world stuck with me. It wasn’t that his was a new thought. It was that his simple way of saying it was helpful. I found it worth remembering… and sharing! So, check out the three quotes below regarding our call to prayer, persuasion, service, and suffering.

If Christ is on the throne and He has poured out His Spirit, then prayer, persuasion, service, and suffering are more than enough. They’re the only tools Christ gave His people to change the world. Early Christians took hold of them and exercised them in the power of God’s Spirit, knowing that Christ had already won. They overturned the world with those four things.

I freely acknowledge that I have no special privileges in society. Christians have no right to tell the nation what to do. Persuasion, service, and prayer are all we’ve got, and all we really need… Christ showed us how to profoundly love and profoundly disagree at the same time. I am looking forward to fresh opportunities to embody this twofold ethical feat in His name.

Believers have one course of action when confronted with opposition. They are to follow the Lord Jesus in enduring suffering, refusing to retaliate, and committing to love enemies.

John Dickson

I was refreshed by his clear comments when so many Christians are invested heavily in politics, as if winning elections or seating judges is how Jesus changes the world! It was good to hear him remind listeners that even if Christians are in the majority [and even if all the Christians agree, I would add] our calling is not to coercively legislate those who disagree with us into oblivion, but rather to persuade. Such fresh air!

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